I haven’t posted any covers in a while, so let’s give it a go. I did a Crisis On Infinite Earths theme a while back, so let’s look at a few of my favorite covers from DC’s next big event: Legends!
Since Crisis compressed the multiverse into a single universe and did away with a lot of old characters in a very broad housecleaning move, Legends was supposed to ‘open up’ the post-Crisis universe a bit with new characters and concepts. The series was written by Len Wein and new hire John Ostrander, suffered from some stilted dialogue, but was a fun romp that brought back Darkseid and the New Gods. The featured players were the new Flash (Wally West, taking up the mantle of his mentor, the late Barry Allen), Changeling, Superman, Captain Marvel, Guy Gardner (recently installed as a Green Lantern), Firestorm, Cosmic Boy (on vacation from the 30th Century) and the Justice League (Detroit).
What emerged from the series was a new Flash series, the end of the Justice League Of America and the birth of the new Justice League, the return of Darkseid as a potent threat, the integration of several characters from parallel worlds no longer in existence, and the emergence of the new Suicide Squad.
And, if nothing else, John Byrne certainly seemed to be enjoying himself, given the enthusiasm he poured into his covers (inked by Karl Kesel):
Unlike Crisis, Legends not only marked its crossovers with a special banner, it also numbered the stories in the order in which you were to read them, so that the chapters actually wove in and out of the main story in the mini-series. However, a few of these crossovers felt pretty light or removed from the Legends story by a couple of generations or so, such as the two Batman episodes. If you skipped these, you really missed nothing, so far as Legends was concerned. (But Detective had a terrific cover by Klaus Janson all the same.)
Cosmic Boy of the Legion Of Super-Heroes got his own mini-series shoehorned in, only marginally connected to Legends (he appears in Legends only long enough to fall in battle against Brother Brimstone) where he realizes that the timestream was altered as a result of the Crisis. Not a bad mini-series, puts him in conflict with an old Legion foe, the Time Trapper, and sports nice covers by Steve Lightle.
One of the most significant changes brought by Legends was the beginning of a new approach to Firestorm, as his dual secret IDs have to learn to retrust one another. New writer John Ostrander used this as a launching point to take the hero(es) down a new, unexpected path. Cover by J J Birch and Steve Mitchell.
Blue Beetle, in his first DC series, had an encounter with Chronos that effectively ran between issues of his own book and the pages of Legends. And I just love this goofy, fun cover by Paris Cullins and Bruce Patterson.
Superman’s participation in Legends is fairly large, but culminates towards the latter half of the series, in a three-part story through his own titles, where Darkseid attempts to brainwash him into becoming a servant of Apokolips. Byrne did the art and stories for most of this crossover, but I best liked this cover for Adventures Of Superman rendered by Jerry Ordway.
Not directly connected to Legends, the Mister Miracle Special was meant to be a bridge of sorts between the event and the inclusion of Scott Free (and Oberon) into the new Justice League. Not that any of that was actually addressed in the story, but it was a fun issue just the same, and artist Steve Rude was at his Kirby-influenced best here.
Legends was also meant as a starting point for a new revamped Shazam! Series, and The New Beginning, which came afterwards, actually takes place just prior to Legends. But in spite of a heartfelt attempt by Roy Thomas, it just doesn’t really gel. And the art by Tom Mandrake, who will later do superb work on other series, like Spectre and Martian Manhunter, just looks wrong and half-hearted here. Captain Marvel will kind of flounder about the DCU for a couple of years, getting his best marks in Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire’s Justice League, until Jerry Ordway gets his chance to revitalize the character during the 90’s.
Legends was also meant as a starting point for a new revamped Shazam! Series, and The New Beginning, which came afterwards, actually takes place just prior to Legends. But in spite of a heartfelt attempt by Roy Thomas, it just doesn’t really gel. And the art by Tom Mandrake, who will later do superb work on other series, like Spectre and Martian Manhunter, just looks wrong and half-hearted here. Captain Marvel will kind of flounder about the DCU for a couple of years, getting his best marks in Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire’s Justice League, until Jerry Ordway gets his chance to revitalize the character during the 90’s.
Roy went through several different pitches/proposals for Captain Marvel before finally getting the green light on this mini-series. I agree with you, Chuck, that this was a lackluster attempt. Frankly, I don’t think Roy was the best guy to be writing a Captain Marvel/Shazam! series anyway—not the kind I want to read, anyway. Roy’s an excellent writer, but lighter, somewhat whimsical fare is not his strong suit. Not that that was what DC was looking for, but that’s what I was hoping for.
Nick drew all the Justice League of America covers in 1974, but most of them were the 100-page Super Spectaculars with the multi-panel covers, which didn't give Nick much to work with. However, Justice League of America #109 (Jan.-Feb. 1974) was the exception, and it was one of those covers that made you look inside because you had to find out what was going on.
There are a number of excellent covers Nick did for other titles in 1973, but we'll end the year with one of his best Batman covers, Detective Comics #436 (Aug.-Sept. 1973). I think this one has made an appearance on this thread before, but it’s worth showing again. And it’s another example of the kind of coloring that’s emotionally very effective but that just isn’t done these days.
There are a number of excellent covers Nick did for other titles in 1973, but we'll end the year with one of his best Batman covers, Detective Comics #436 (Aug.-Sept. 1973). I think this one has made an appearance on this thread before, but it’s worth showing again. And it’s another example of the kind of coloring that’s emotionally very effective but that just isn’t done these days.
There are a number of excellent covers Nick did for other titles in 1973, but we'll end the year with one of his best Batman covers, Detective Comics #436 (Aug.-Sept. 1973). I think this one has made an appearance on this thread before, but it’s worth showing again. And it’s another example of the kind of coloring that’s emotionally very effective but that just isn’t done these days.
There are a number of excellent covers Nick did for other titles in 1973, but we'll end the year with one of his best Batman covers, Detective Comics #436 (Aug.-Sept. 1973). I think this one has made an appearance on this thread before, but it’s worth showing again. And it’s another example of the kind of coloring that’s emotionally very effective but that just isn’t done these days.
You're not far off, actually. He isn't going up against the Scarecrow in this story, but a bad cop who plants a mind-controlling drug in Bruce Wayne’s luggage for blackmail purposes.
Nick phased out of the comic book industry in 1975. He did do a handful of covers for DC before he left completely, but nowhere near the number he drew in the previous years. Here’s Nick’s last Superman cover: Superman #285 (Mar. 1975).
I haven’t posted any covers in a while, so let’s give it a go. I did a Crisis On Infinite Earths theme a while back, so let’s look at a few of my favorite covers from DC’s next big event: Legends!
Since Crisis compressed the multiverse into a single universe and did away with a lot of old characters in a very broad housecleaning move, Legends was supposed to ‘open up’ the post-Crisis universe a bit with new characters and concepts. The series was written by Len Wein and new hire John Ostrander, suffered from some stilted dialogue, but was a fun romp that brought back Darkseid and the New Gods. The featured players were the new Flash (Wally West, taking up the mantle of his mentor, the late Barry Allen), Changeling, Superman, Captain Marvel, Guy Gardner (recently installed as a Green Lantern), Firestorm, Cosmic Boy (on vacation from the 30th Century) and the Justice League (Detroit).
What emerged from the series was a new Flash series, the end of the Justice League Of America and the birth of the new Justice League, the return of Darkseid as a potent threat, the integration of several characters from parallel worlds no longer in existence, and the emergence of the new Suicide Squad.
And, if nothing else, John Byrne certainly seemed to be enjoying himself, given the enthusiasm he poured into his covers (inked by Karl Kesel):
You missed out issue 5. At the time I bought this series, I didn't know who Captain Marvel was, I thought Superman had created a new costume for himself using bits of the costumes laying on the ground.
But Nick didn’t leave the industry completely just yet. Late in 1974 he began producing covers for Marvel’s black-and-white magazine line—mostly for their Mad rip-off, Crazy—and he continued doing them for a while after leaving DC. Here’s Nick’s cover to Crazy #10 (Apr. 1975).
He also did covers for a couple of other b-&-w magazines for Marvel: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #15 (Summer 1975) and the lesser known Marvel Movie Premiere #1 (Sept. 1975), shown below.
And in case I didn’t make it clear, Nick painted all the magazine covers himself. He actually enjoyed painting quite a bit, and he did a fair amount of it after his retirement—though the painting he did then was typically more in the realm of fine art than the commercial style he used for the magazine covers.
No, he did the one above, the one Kung Fu, and six or seven Crazy covers. After that he was working exclusively for the Hollywood studios, doing movie posters (he even did some touch-up work on theStar Wars poster) and the little ads that would show up in the movie listing of the newspaper. Oh, and he did some TV Guide covers as well. He did a great Columbo caricature.
Okay, here’s Nick’s cover for Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #18 (Nov. 1975), featuring Shang-Chi.
Nick did come back and do a handful of covers for DC years later, but I posted all of those not too long ago, so I'm going end the Cardy-a-day posts with this. I'm going to be in an Internet-free zone for a few days, but hopefully some of you guys will keep the thread active while I'm away.
I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for taking us through the history of the talented Mr. Cardy. As you know, I realized what a life-long fan I had been (unknowingly) just a couple years back. I was saddened by his passing and greatly appreciated all your work, both in your Nick Cardy book and on this thread.
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Since Crisis compressed the multiverse into a single universe and did away with a lot of old characters in a very broad housecleaning move, Legends was supposed to ‘open up’ the post-Crisis universe a bit with new characters and concepts. The series was written by Len Wein and new hire John Ostrander, suffered from some stilted dialogue, but was a fun romp that brought back Darkseid and the New Gods. The featured players were the new Flash (Wally West, taking up the mantle of his mentor, the late Barry Allen), Changeling, Superman, Captain Marvel, Guy Gardner (recently installed as a Green Lantern), Firestorm, Cosmic Boy (on vacation from the 30th Century) and the Justice League (Detroit).
What emerged from the series was a new Flash series, the end of the Justice League Of America and the birth of the new Justice League, the return of Darkseid as a potent threat, the integration of several characters from parallel worlds no longer in existence, and the emergence of the new Suicide Squad.
And, if nothing else, John Byrne certainly seemed to be enjoying himself, given the enthusiasm he poured into his covers (inked by Karl Kesel):
@Matt would hate this one!
M
And in case I didn’t make it clear, Nick painted all the magazine covers himself. He actually enjoyed painting quite a bit, and he did a fair amount of it after his retirement—though the painting he did then was typically more in the realm of fine art than the commercial style he used for the magazine covers.
No damn dirty apes though.
Nick did come back and do a handful of covers for DC years later, but I posted all of those not too long ago, so I'm going end the Cardy-a-day posts with this. I'm going to be in an Internet-free zone for a few days, but hopefully some of you guys will keep the thread active while I'm away.
I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for taking us through the history of the talented Mr. Cardy. As you know, I realized what a life-long fan I had been (unknowingly) just a couple years back. I was saddened by his passing and greatly appreciated all your work, both in your Nick Cardy book and on this thread.
Thanks again,
Rob